[bryony]

That's a good question. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I really don't see it being much different than now.

Right now, I sometimes want sex and sometimes don't.
She sometimes wants sex and sometimes doesn't.
When I want it and she doesn't, I go to sleep frustrated.
When she wants it and I don't, she makes me want it.

So, really, the only change I see from a reduction to my libido is that I'll be going to sleep frustrated less often.

Exactly. You may even find that if your wife realises that she has to initiate it, it might happen more often!

B.

[Demon Lord Etna]

The point is, our bodies aren't wrong, our brains are. We didn't get enough androgen in the womb so our brains feel female, and can't deal with the level that we produce - testosterone toxicity.

Wow, maybe I read that wrong, but it seems like exactly the opposite of anything I expected to see here. The body is a geneticly programmed vessel we use to get around and express our individuality. The brain (the mind) is who we are. So how can the brain be wrong?

[bryony]

The point is, our bodies aren't wrong, our brains are. We didn't get enough androgen in the womb so our brains feel female, and can't deal with the level that we produce - testosterone toxicity.

Wow, maybe I read that wrong, but it seems like exactly the opposite of anything I expected to see here. The body is a geneticly programmed vessel we use to get around and express our individuality. The brain (the mind) is who we are. So how can the brain be wrong?

Well, I do label myself heretic for a reason!

Search the forum for "vitale" and you'll find links to Dr Ann Vitale's papers and faqs.

"Who we are" very much depends on a complex balance of chemicals.

Before I took PM I suffered from anxiety about almost everything and mild depression for at least 10 years. The conditions in my life to produce those feelings externally have not changed, but my endocrine balance has - thanks to PM. So if "who I am" used to be a bag of worries agonising because he wasn't a female and could never be, how is it that "who I am" now does not?

Simply that the brain does go wrong - in this case, congenitally.

It is an almost universal cry from "real" transsexuals that "I was born in the wrong body", to the extent that only a heretic says "I was born with a mangled brain!". Which is why there is a whole industry making megabucks out of re-engineering the plumbing from one gender to another, instead of trying to fix the root cause, which is fixing the balance of chemicals in the brain so that it no longer causes the pain.

It's a controversial point, but I think the weight of evidence is with me on this.

B.

[Demon Lord Etna]

I don't disagree. I'm still young in this world, barely understanding that there even is a problem, not ready to start isolating the cause. Herecy isn't a bad thing, either. It's a difference of opinion.

Remember, 200 years ago, you would have been the right minded individual in a crowd of heretics.

[sfem]

Wow, maybe I read that wrong, but it seems like exactly the opposite of anything I expected to see here. The body is a geneticly programmed vessel we use to get around and express our individuality. The brain (the mind) is who we are. So how can the brain be wrong?

It isn't. Neither is the body. What is wrong is the perception that one or the other is. Genetically programmed but not deterministic. Brain and body both. Lots of flexibility for the species to evolve and adapt. The "pain" comes from small minds trying to shrink your mind to match theirs.

Lenneth posted a link to an article on the gender spectrum several days ago which really does a nice job of discussing this (if you're too lazy to check history for the link, don't waste your time typing a request for someone else to find it for you). For as long as there have been people, there has been a diversity of both body and mind. The majority rules (diversity promotes survival a lot less than diversity endangers survival) and so if you aren't in one of the common populations then you are viewed as "wrong". There truly is and always has been a very complex mix of gender stuff in the human animal and it is struggling against reality to think there are Adam and Eve ideals for us. Most people just aren't able to break their training and accept that there is no right and wrong for gender/dress/sexuality. It's why very young children have no problem with these concepts. They know what they feel and they don't understand anything wrong about it until some older smaller mind tells them they aren't allowed to feel that way. I prefer to use the no harm rule. It isn't a popular way to evaluate these things, particularly in religious societies. Religions usually have a very large harm component. And they have shaped societies for a very long time.

[sfem]

I don't disagree. I'm still young in this world, barely understanding that there even is a problem, not ready to start isolating the cause. Herecy isn't a bad thing, either. It's a difference of opinion.

Remember, 200 years ago, you would have been the right minded individual in a crowd of heretics.

200 years ago if he exposed any of his inner self, he would have been tortured and probably put to public death for not being the same as the ruling class wanted to appear. He would therefore have spent his life denying his true self and likely wound up helping to perpetuate the existing social structure, possibly even as an actively brutal individual out of personal pain. Pick your point in history. You can be made out to be anything if you pick the right time and place.

[Isabelle]

Lots of flexibility for the species to evolve and adapt.

Music to my ears. It sure didn't take me long to adapt to party people who like natural boobs and need something extra

And the Good Lord gave us all these wonderful herbs. I wonder what closed minds think they're for

[Demon Lord Etna]

200 years ago if he exposed any of his inner self, he would have been tortured and probably put to public death for not being the same as the ruling class wanted to appear. He would therefore have spent his life denying his true self and likely wound up helping to perpetuate the existing social structure, possibly even as an actively brutal individual out of personal pain. Pick your point in history. You can be made out to be anything if you pick the right time and place.

I meant more along the lines of his statement that people who want to be different than the rest of the world sees as being "normal" must have something wrong with their brain.

I mean no offense either way, and am already regretting having even said that much. I understand what is said and what is meant aren't always going to mesh fluidly.

[sfem]

No offense taken, and please don't feel you shouldn't say what is on your mind. I wouldn't have anything to say myself if there weren't new and different things being posted. That really is the point. Don't shut down or hide just because you're different or think differently (or just plain disagree). It's why we welcome everyone's thoughts here as long as they aren't being cruel or hateful. Keep those creative and inquisitive ideas flowing!

[Kell92]

Sfem that was spot on. Throughout the ages we have lived in a world that has had a religious mindset, that has destroyed many lives. The old testament had laws that were very cruel, but right in the eyes of God. In the NT we have only 2 laws to abide. Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbour as yourself. And Paul mentions in Galatians that there is neither. Slave or free, rich or poor, gentile or Jew, and neither male or female. Basically we are all equall.

Yes Isabelle, God gave every herb and plant to man, and man was made in Gods image. It says, He made them male and female in His image. Everything has a purpose, but man has perverted almost everything. It's interesting to see that animals naturally act as they feel. I didn't know what I was for years, I never chose that? So if one feels whole and complete by taking the wonderful herbs God has given to achieve our goals, then go for it.